Question about XDP files - priority=?

[ndicki]

In the top line of the xdp file, you get Priority="1" which determines AFAIK the probablity of spawning of the aircraft. I've seen=0, 1, 2 and 3.

So I'm wondering if anybody knows what these figures actually mean... I've just been swamped by unexpected Me410s and Dancat's FW190s, when I expected a boatload of my own Bf109s - and lo and behold, the FWs and Me410s were all set to =2. I'd thought that would have made them less likely to appear...

Does anybody actually KNOW about this?

(Dancat's FWs were very good, though!)

[loverboy1]

excellent question im with you ......wish i had asked . they say if you dont ask youll never know

thank you im awaiting as well


joshua

[sdsbolt]

Higher # = more likely to be targeted by AI aircraft.

[ndicki]

Ah, OK - so it's not connected to spawning but to "attractiveness" as a target?

So why is it that when all aircraft are theoretically equally likely to spawn (if that is the case...), you seem always to get the same ones?

[HouseHobbit]

It does effect spawing,
in your spawns when you build them, you have a SpawnControl Priority setting..
It effects when the item and in what order they spawn..
A higher priority setting will tell the game engine to spawn this more often..
then a lower priority setting will..

Several folks have sent me missions where they were not getting the spawns to work as they wish..
Often, I have had to rebuild most of these with new priority settings to ensure it happens as desired.
Or even delete the ones they built and build completely new ones to achive the needed goal.
Because they didn't set up a priority setting in the spawn..

The pritority setting in aircraft XDP's also read in the same way in the game engine, by rank..

Higher pritority and more likely the even of a spawn, the lower setting the less likely..with random spawns,
random spawns are generated with a action between the game engine and the (random) spawning set up in the spawning folder..

Then they are equal between aircraft, the game engine will choose the the first that is in the
aircraft load in order, often randomly...You just never know what you may get..

Oh if anyone one asks I HATE SPAWNS!!!
A pain in the neck sometimes..LOL..

[ndicki]

I LOVE spawns! You have no idea at all what's going to come at you - which is why I've boosted them to give more than the usual three or four aircraft... This afternoon I did one in which I had some 30 or more assorted Hun fighters trying to spoil my fun. I spoiled theirs a bit instead!

[HouseHobbit]

WOW!!! I haven't tried this.. 30+ Yea, that could ruin a hobbit's day..:jump:..

I am glad you're on our side..:icon_lol:
Nigel, I'd Hate to face 30 bad guys at once, but now you have my interest up..:jump:
Sounds like a bail out is on the way..:gameoff:

[Led Zeppelin]

I don't know what "priority" is in XDP files. What I've done is that I've setup everything at 3, it takes 15 seconds to do with PSPAD.

But, it was qui some time ago so I'lle have to do it again as I've added several aircrafts.

[ndicki]

WOW!!! I haven't tried this.. 30+ Yea, that could ruin a hobbit's day..:jump:..

I am glad you're on our side..:icon_lol:
Nigel, I'd Hate to face 30 bad guys at once, but now you have my interest up..:jump:
Sounds like a bail out is on the way..:gameoff:

Well, I set my ammo to "unlimited" and got 13 or 14 of them before my engine gave out and I came down on the beach! With limited ammo, one or two, I suppose. Sometimes you need to let rip a bit!

[Daiwilletti]

I don't know what "priority" is in XDP files. What I've done is that I've setup everything at 3, it takes 15 seconds to do with PSPAD.

But, it was qui some time ago so I'lle have to do it again as I've added several aircrafts.

Hi Ndicki,

I've seen a thread a few years ago discussing this. IIRC its pretty much a targetting thing in missions. If a mission directs aircraft to attack an airbase, notice how in stock cfs3 the runways are bombed with these silly little lonely craters plonked in the middle of the field?

But I think someone set the priority for the AA guns higher in the XDP files for the AA vehicles in ETO, because now I usually see aircraft (eg. in CAP spawns) bombing the AA guns rather than the runways.

So I think the priority also applies to aircraft as already stated by sdsbolt.

Sounds like HH has also unearthed some interesting info in his exploration of the extreme bounds of mission building

[ndicki]

Let me get this right - we have Steve saying that the xdp priority setting makes the aircraft (or object) more attractive as a target, and Owen saying that it makes it more likely to spawn... Or did I misread something?

[HouseHobbit]

Yes, it effects, both..
In the spawn set up it will cause the spawn to happen according, to the priority set in the spawn..Set in the XDP it will also effect the way a item spawns and how attractive as a target .when using a stock setup..

There are two priority settings One for spawns How often, and one setting for aircraft XDP to set the priority for random spawns..How often ..How attractive...

There also is a setting in the cfg files that will increase the aggresssiveness of AI aircraft, to a degree anyway..I have been playing with this of late also..Haven't worked it out completely yet..

[ndicki]

Owen, can you write this out clearly, in idiot-proof monosyllables, in the knowledge base? It strikes me that all this information should be in there.

[lewis11777]

Owen you speak of higher and lower priority without clarifying that. Does that mean that the higher the number the higher priority or vice versa? :isadizzy:

[HouseHobbit]

Yes,
The higher the number, the higher the spawn rate (likelyhood), and in XDP (aircraft) the more likely it will spawn, and or in the case of objects if draws the fire of a attacker..

1-3 are the rates, just as setting the Rookie to Expert are 1 , 2 or 3..
I am still looking into how all of this works..
But it seems the priority make a difference it what and when it Happens in a mission..
One of those things I fell upon some time back experimenting with the outer bounds of mission building..:jump:
It is all tied together, and I haven't taken the time yet to work it all out..